Town Square

Man arrested for hate crime, cane attack in downtown Palo Alto

Original post made
on Aug 27, 2014

Palo Alto police have arrested a man who they say committed a hate crime Saturday night when he yelled racial epithets and attacked two older men in a downtown parking lot, in one case smashing a cane across a victim's forehead.

Posted by Men and violence
a resident of Downtown North
on Aug 27, 2014 at 10:50 am

We need some medical or pharmaceutical attention to the propensity of so many men to violence.
Add drugs or alcohol to the testosterone poisoning and we get the random violence every day. This is a big subject but it needs attention.

Posted by Joe
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 27, 2014 at 12:07 pm

> We need some medical or pharmaceutical attention to the propensity
> of so many men to violence.

You mean like the young men who were rioting, looting and shooting at law enforcement in Ferguson, MO, over the past couple of weeks?

Please take note--Palo Alto routinely sees very few violtent crimes, on a yearly basis. This young man was not from Palo Alto, proper, but his outburst will end up being a black mark on this year's police stats.

Posted by John Thomas-Whitcomb McCoy
a resident of another community
on Aug 27, 2014 at 1:39 pm

Thank you PAPD it's always gratifying when a crime in progress can be stopped! Now on a slightly lighter side, have city officials checked for valid visas inside the passports of the two vics for even entering The City Palo Alto?

Posted by boscoli
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Aug 27, 2014 at 2:56 pm

Liz Kniss is so proud of having a "thriving downtown" which she attributes to the urbanization and fast track development she is so fond of. We never used to have those kind of lowlifes roaming downtown before the irresponsible urbanization of Palo Alto. Now it attracts criminals, drug dealers, junkies, rapists, gang mambers and such. The meteoric rise in real estate values comes with a very steep price.

Posted by InsideMan
a resident of another community
on Aug 28, 2014 at 10:51 am

I actually know the suspect very well. He's not mentally unstable, he doesn't have a propensity for violence, and he CERTAINLY is not a racist. I have known Shane for over a decade and those types of things would have definitely surfaced at some point.

Note that Shane also has a large welt on his forehead and yet, there is no explanation as to how he got it. This whole story is completely based on what the victims said happened. I would really like to know everyone's side of the story.

Having known Shane for so long, I know for a fact this event did not go down exactly as the victims are describing.